In this article

Internationalization for Windows Applications

05/31/2018

4 minutes to read

In this article

(Formerly titled "International Support")

This section describes the technologies in Windows that enable you to support the many cultures and written languages of the international marketplace in your C or C++ based Microsoft Win32 application.

Windows has become an essential platform for customers worldwide. International users expect solutions that are adapted to their languages and regions around the world. In this section, you will find the information you need to develop multilanguage, multicultural, and multisite solutions. The international support built into Windows empowers you to implement many scenarios with less engineering overhead than ever before.

The development of world-ready applications requires the use of many services and tools. Windows contains features that enable you to develop solutions that:

Support the different language-specific and locale-specific needs of users around the world (including specialized text enablement, sorting behavior, date and time formatting, and keyboard layouts). (For more information, see National Language Support Knowledge Center.)

Are globalized (can be deployed worldwide from a single binary image) and localizable (able to be adapted for specific local markets). (For more information, see Understanding Multilingual User Interface.)

Describes how applications can take advantage of Unicode, the worldwide character-encoding standard that uses 16-bit code values to represent all the characters used in modern computing, including technical symbols and special characters used in publishing.

Common Scenarios:

Support the many different languages of the international marketplace through Unicode.

Convert Unicode characters to and from other character sets, when necessary.

Other Resources

The Go Global Developer Center contains additional articles on building international software, tools and utility downloads, and a code gallery. The Center provides information on all Microsoft International Support Technologies, including unmanaged and managed technologies.